Thursday, November 08, 2018

Mumbai: A possible acquisition of Jet Airways will allow the Tata group to scale up its aviation business and take on IndiGo as it will gain large international market share and slots at busy airports.

While Jet Airways, with its 15.8 per cent market share, is a distant second in the domestic market (IndiGo is nearly thrice its size), it is the leader on international routes.

Jet Airways had a share of around 14 per cent on international routes in FY18, higher than Air India and Emirates.

A deal would also secure Tata group slots at the congested Mumbai airport where its airlines have been unable to expand their base. Vistara operates only 11 daily flights from Mumbai while AirAsia India does not operate to Mumbai at all. Jet has around 40 per cent and 25 per cent share of domestic and international traffic from Mumbai and is the market leader in Mumbai. In fact, it is the only large airport where Jet holds the number one position.

Tata and Jet executives have held preliminary talks and one such meeting took place in London two weeks ago.
08/11/18 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard